Chinatrust to buy Nan Shan Life stake

Taiwan’s Chinatrust Financial is set to pay $660m for a 30 per cent stake in Nan Shan Life Insurance, just a month after it was defeated in its bid to buy the AIG subsidiary

• Lex: Taiwan / China
• China opens banking doors to Taiwan

Rising inflows boost Fortis

Belgian insurance group Fortis, broken up as one of Europe’s largest victims of the financial crisis, reports net profit of €196m and says it expects 2009 inflows to at least match last year’s levels

Geithner under fire over AIG payments

The New York Federal Res­erve under Tim Geithner ‘severely limited its ability’ to extract ­concessions from AIG’s counter­parties in talks that ended with $27.1bn of public money transferred to the likes of Société Générale and Goldman Sachs, according to a government watchdog

Amlin remains hopeful

Signs of improving UK commercial motor insurance premiums make the largest listed Lloyd’s of London insurer optimistic even as catastrophe-related rates look likely to stagnate

MMC agrees to settle lawsuit

Marsh & McLennan, one the world’s largest insurance brokers, said it will pay $400m to settle a class-action case brought by investors who claimed the group made ‘false and misleading statements’

EU delays adoption of accounting rule changes

Brussels holds back the radical overhaul covering banks and insurers which came into force across most of the rest of the world amid a split over asset valuation under the new rules

Myners backs insurers on EU capital rules

Lord Myners, the city minister, says new European capital rules for insurance companies could discourage people from saving for retirement by cutting the value of pensions

Aegon returns to profit

The Dutch insurer signalled confidence about scrutiny from the European Commission over the €3bn in state aid it received as it reported a return to profit in the third quarter that nonetheless missed analyst expectations